Monday, September 26, 2011

In case you are unfamiliar with the bar drink called a B52, I will explain. It is a drink that is made up of layers of liqueur. The sequence of the layering is based on the weight of the liquid as is layered in this order: Baileys Irish Cream on the bottom, Kahlua or coffee liqueur in the middle and Grand Marnier or orange liqueur on top. There is some bartender skill involved to make sure that the liquid does not mix and the layering stays intact as pictured below.

Anyhow, this recipe duplicates the layered flavors in a cookie form. It has one basic dough that is separated into thirds and flavored. Then the dough is stacked in layers and cut to form the cookies.

My cookies did not turn out with perfect edges, but I feel that maybe a sharper knife and freezing the dough longer would have helped. However, these are homemade and not manufactured, so maybe the non-perfect edges are a good thing.

As far as taste, you can taste the liqueur flavors in each of these layers and the chocolate chips compliment each flavor layer. The texture and ingredients in the cookie base very much resemble sable cookies. Now on to the recipe, it makes about 2 dozen cookies:

Sift together flour and baking powder in a medium size bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. This should take about 2 minutes on medium high speed. Then beat in egg until blended.

With a wooden spoon, fold flour mixture into butter/sugar batter until no dry streaks remain. Then stir in the chocolate chips so they are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Divide the dough into 3 pieces and place each in a separate bowl.

Take a small bowl and add the Kahlua and espresso and still until the espresso dissolves. Set aside.

Line up your bowls of dough. Going from left to right you will flavor the dough. In the first bowl, mix the Baileys Irish Cream into the dough. In the second bowl of dough, stir in the Kahlua/espresso mixture. In the last bowl, stir in the Grand Marnier.

Each piece of dough will need to be checked for consistency before rolling out between pieces of waxed paper. I found that my Kahlua dough was a not as stiff as the other dough, so I placed it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Once the pieces are of rolling consistency, each will need to be placed between sheets of wax paper. You will need to keep track of the flavors, so it is best to roll them out and line them up in the same order as noted above. Roll each piece into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick, 3 inches wide and about 10 inches long. Place each piece of dough on a separate baking sheet and place in freezer for 10 minutes.

Remove baking sheets and peel off the wax paper of the Baileys dough. Place back on baking sheet. Then peel the wax paper off of the Kahlua dough and stack on top of the Baileys dough, making sure that the edges are even as possible. Lastly, remove the wax paper from the last layer (Grand Marnier) of the dough and stack it on top of the Kahlua dough. Wrap the whole block in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour.

During this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease baking sheets.

Remove block from freezer once chilling time is complete. With a sharp knife, square off all sides so that the rectangle has sharp straight edges. Then cut the block in 2 separate pieces, measuring 1 1/2 inches wide by 10 inches long. Place one piece of dough so the 10 inch length is running left to right on a flat surface. Then slice the dough vertically into 1/2 inch wide pieces. Repeat the process with the other piece of dough.

Place each square of dough 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done. When done, cookies will be firm and lightly browned on the bottom. As you can see by the above picture, these cookies do not brown on the top or the edges. Remove cookies from baking sheet and transfer to a rack to cool. Cheers!**LAST YEAR: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread**